Barred Owl
 
A Sleepy Juvenile Barred Owl


The mahogany hammock ecosystem we visited was full of life, but the jungle-like thickness of the undergrowth made it nearly impossible to observe any animals,  until a baby barred owl was seen perched high (20 feet) in a tree that had been killed by a strangler fig.  The owl was quite young, with lots of downy, grayish feathers on its abdomen.  I watched it for about two hours and 30 minutes, during which it never walked around or noticeably moved any part of its body except its head. However, there were many interesting things to observe in the owl.
    The owl itself was also very observant at first, watching us whenever we moved from one side of the tree to the other to get a better look.  When we were directly under the tree, the baby looked right down at us.  Throughout the time I observed the owl, it was usually aware of other people coming by to look at it or just passing through on the boardwalk under the owl's perch.  I watched through the scope lots of the time, and the owl was quite intent in keeping its eye on me, too.  The owl's neck was very flexible, as it could turn around almost 180 degrees to look directly behind where it had been facing.
    The owl seemed to get quite sleepy a little later in the afternoon.  When I was first observing it, the rate of blinking was about once every four to six seconds.  As time went on, its eyes were half closed, and then almost all the way closed.  Its eyes opened again when another human came by, but a few minutes later, they closed again.  The image above was taken during one of the times that only one eye was open to look around, while the other one stayed closed. The owl even yawned twice, opening its beak wide.  Sometimes, it looked like it was trying to stay awake, but its eyelids would fall closed.  It was as if the owl couldn't resist sleep any more, despite repeated openings of the eyelids a crack.  For a few minutes, it appeared to be completely asleep because not even noises nearby would cause it to open its eyes.
    When a car alarm started, the owl opened its eyes and turned to look in the direction of the parking lot. An adult barred owl flew nearby and it seemed to be a parent of the baby, but all of the humans around probably prevented it from flying to its nest.
    Dr. Atkins can make a barred owl call that sounds very real.  To test the owl's alertness and how it would respond to his call from different directions, Dr. Atkins first called from the owl's right.  As soon as the call started, the owl turned its head to look directly at Dr. Atkins, with a rather piercing and curious gaze.  Its head stayed turned that direction until Dr. Atkins went around to the owl's left and called again.  Then the owl turned its head 180 degrees around towards the new sound.  However, Dr. Atkins was farther away this time and the sound was fainter.  The owl soon turned its head back towards the direction of the first call, where the signal was stronger.  After several minutes, during which the owl almost fell asleep again, Dr. Atkins called from the owl's left again.  After the third call from the left, the owl finally turned towards Dr. Atkins and stayed looking that way. When Dr. Atkins then called from the owl's right again, the owl didn't look in that direction until Dr. Atkins stopped calling.  Then the owl started to fall asleep again, as if it was getting bored of our game and realized that it was only Dr. Atkins calling, not its parents.
    Just before we left the mahogany hammock, Hans, a member of our group, climbed up the vine that was hanging from the owl's branch.  When he was about six feet from the owl, it brought its head far forward to look down at him and clicked its beak six times or so at him.  It was a very loud sound and seemed to be fraught with warning and anger.  After Hans had climbed down, the owl clicked its beak two more times at him.
    A possible future experiment could be to test a baby barred owl's response to Dr. Atkin's call many more times than we did.   The owl appeared to be bored, but it still might have responded to the call.  After the owl heard the call many times, it would be interesting to discover how long the owl would listen to the call in a new direction before it turned that way.